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Canadian sprinter Khamica Bingham quick to state her goals

Rising star says she's focused on running a sub-11 100 and will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. Her quest begins this weekend at the Millrose Games in New York.

Canadian sprinter Khamica Bingham will be taking part in this weekend's Millrose Games in New York. She says her primary goal is to run a sub-11 in the 100. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

NEW YORK—They are both 21 years old and they both started running because their first sport fell through — his high school basketball team folded and her gymnastics became too expensive.

These days, they both are chasing the Canadian 100-metre record.

But that is where the similarities end.

Khamica Bingham is Canada’s fastest woman but doesn’t have the profile or the multi-million dollar contract that Andre De Grasse, Canada’s fastest man, does.

“Ah, no,” she says, laughing when asked about whether Puma has come calling for her, pen and paper in hand. “I have not been approached with any contracts, as of yet.”

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But the Brampton runner thinks she knows what it’ll take to make that to happen.

“I definitely have to run sub-11.”

Bingham is the first Canadian sprinter in a generation to even come close to dipping under 11 seconds in the 100, a barrier for women that is similar to sub-10 seconds for men.

Angela Bailey is Canada’s record holder at 10.98, and her mark has remained unchallenged for nearly three decades.

Bingham has run 11.0 but it was wind-aided so it doesn’t count, making her 11.13 from last summer’s Toronto Pan Am Games her best time to date.

Bingham wants to nail that sub-11 time both for herself and for the sport.

“To be that first one like De Grasse — look what he did, it’s been forever since a male went sub 10 seconds and he was the first,” she says.

“We have world champions (in athletics) now, we have medallists, we have so many more podiums and it’s bringing so much more attention to Canada. It’s motivating. Before, it was ‘good job, you made it to the semis,’ ” she says.

“You know what? I’m not happy with just making the semis or getting to the finals, I want more and I want to help bring Canadian women’s sprinting to the limelight.”

She’s not quite there yet but she is starting to gain traction. The fact she has a lane for the 60-metre dash at Saturday’s prestigious Millrose Games is proof of that.

“Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times, yes,” she says, recalling her reaction when she was asked if she’d like to run the indoor sprint here.

“To be the only Canadian in (the women’s 60), it’s a chance for me to represent Canada.”

It’s also an opportunity to test herself against world-class athletes, including American Allyson Felix, who commands so much global respect the Olympic schedule for Rio was changed so she can compete in both the 200, where she’s the Olympic champion, and the 400, where she’s the world champion.

Bingham is well aware Felix is here — she was in all the Millrose Games pre-event promotional material — and she knows the rest of the field is strong.

In fact, half the eight-runner lineup already has clocked that sub-11 time in the 100 Bingham is so eager to achieve. And in the 60m, which they’ll contest Saturday afternoon live on NBC Sports, most of the field has recorded times faster than the Canadian’s 7.19 seconds.

But Bingham says she hasn’t looked them up or their times in the various sprint distances.

That’s the sort of thing she used to do, and it’s what led to her running scared in her first international final at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

She doesn’t do scared anymore.

“I want to be the best and to do that I have to compete against them,” she says, adding she’s heading to Europe for the outdoor season to make sure she keeps facing the big names.

“They’ll be pushing me and then, when I’m at my best, I’ll be pushing them.”

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